My First Harmonium
The divine Sher Singh was our gatekeeper, or you can say security guard, at India House. He had a harmonium. One day he said to me, "Do you play the harmonium?" He wanted to sell it to me for six dollars.
I said, "Please take twenty-five dollars!" He said, "No, no. You are poor."
Then I said, "My lucky number is seven. Let me buy it for seven."
So he took my seven dollars and gave me back one dollar. I do not know why. Then he gave me the harmonium and I was so delighted and inspired. I used it for many, many years. His harmonium is immortal. It was my first and foremost harmonium. His name was written in Hindi on the front of the instrument.
| Sher Singh comments: ... One of Mr. Mehrotra's secretaries had to go back to India, so I bought a harmonium from him to occupy my leisure time and to learn some music. Somehow Ghose came to learn that I had a harmonium. In those days I used to live at the Consulate in the basement, which was the security quarters. I knew that he wanted a harmonium and so one day I brought it to him and said, "Ghose, here it is.'" He paid me seven dollars for it. Once I went to a meeting that he was holding on 86th Street. That was the first time I saw him playing the harmonium. |
| Often I used to see Ghose eating his lunch inside the telephone booth. He kept the door closed. When I passed by, I would knock on the door from outside by way of joke. |
He is playing the small harmonium that he bought from his colleague, Sher Singh, for seven dollars.
RECITAL PROGRAMME |
| 1. Sanskrit Invocation from the Vedas: Agne naya supatha raye asman (music by Chinmoy) |
| 2. Sanskrit chant from the Upanishads: Asato ma sad gamaya (music by Chinmoy) |
| 3. Sanskrit chant from the Bhagavad Gita: Tvamadi deva purusha purana (music hy Chinmoy) |
| 4. Bengali poem by Chandidas: Eghora rajani meghera ghata (music hy Chinmoy) |
| 5. Bengali song by Rabindranath Tagore: Nivid ghana andhare jwalichhe dhruvatara |
| 6. Bengali song by Tagore: Amar hiyar lukiye |
| 7. Song by Kaji Najrul Islam: He partha sarathi |
| 8. Bengali song by Chinmoy: Jago amar swapan sathi |
| 9. Original National Anthem of India by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee: Bande mataram (music by Dilip Kumar Roy) |
[Source: "My First Harmonium" in Sri Chinmoy, My Consulate Years, Agni Press, Jamaica, NY, 1996, p. 33.]
